I.B.M. Member Profile

ExecutiveCoaching

ethical magic for better living

About Philip Henderson

 Philip Henderson began to learn how to perform magic under the instruction of the late David Thorsen.  Thorsen was an extraordinary magician and teacher.  He passed his great love of this art to thousands of students.  Henderson was 46 years old when he met his mentor Thorsen.

Henderson was drawn to the art of magic to enhance his ability to make public presentations.  He was confident that being able to entertain strangers with magic tricks would prepare him to make outstanding and memorable presentations to the deans, assistant deans and faculty he worked with as an Assistant Dean at the University of California, Irvine.  Henderson sought to gain the complete attention of his audiences using the methods magicians use to captivate their audiences.  He was right!  The skills and methods magicians use to entertain work perfectly when educating or lecturing.  The same psychological methods work to contol the attention of the human mind.

Henderson is retired from the University but has continued to use magic he calls "sleight of mind" to educate and entertain audiences.  Since 2003 he has used "ethical magic" to teach school children about farming using oxen.  He has become an oxen teamster and works with a team of cattle trained to work as oxen.  He has given presentations to more than 500,000 elementary school children, usually 20 students at a time.  He shows the oxen to the children in their yoke while working at the Centennial Farm in Costa Mesa, California.  This farm is open daily, Monday thorough Friday and welcomes more than 80,000 school children annually who arrive on busess to tour the farm.  The Centennial Farm is an agency of the State of California.  Admission is free.  Henderson is the leader of the oxen teamsters, a group of twenty volunteers who take turns showing the oxen.

Henderson has been an officer of IBM Ring 313 for more than twenty-years, currently serving as Ring Secretary.  Our Ring has more than fifty active members who love using magic to entertain and educate.  Henderson enjoys serving as a keynote speaker on the subject of ethics.  He considers himself the world's first full-time Ethical Magician.  

Ethical Magic occurs when Henderson performs a magic trick whose effect is to help the person experiencing the magic to learn something about himself.  Henderson works part-time as an executive coach.  He using magic tricks to help his clients discover elements of their character that limit their success in work and in their family and social lives.  He uses ethical magic to help them cure these limiting character traits and to create new character that lead them to living ethical lives in their workplace, home, and community.  

Henderson is grateful for the IBM membership for creating a home for magicians to hone their craft and share their love for magic.